


New Beginnings

by Tay_Quin



Series: Marauders [1]
Category: Emma Evans: The Slytherin Sister - Taylor Quinlan, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus, F/F, F/M, Gen, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Magic, Marauders, Slytherin, Werewolf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27378190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tay_Quin/pseuds/Tay_Quin
Summary: Just a lil’ Marauders seriesNote: It is canonical with my Emma Evans series, hence the fandom tag
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Severus Snape/Lily Evans, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Marauders [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999969
Kudos: 2





	1. Letters

Remus John Lupin could not believe it, he was going to Hogwarts, he was actually going to Hogwarts! The Hogwarts he had dreamt of as a child.

And he was terrified. Absolutely, completely terrified. For, Remus Lupin was not like the other witches and wizards who would be attending, magical though he was, it wasn’t all he was. Remus Lupin was a werewolf, plain and simple. And he didn’t see any way he could make it through his seven years of schooling without someone finding out his secret. And worse yet, what if he hurt someone? Or... no the prospect was too dreadful to even think.

Not to worry, Remus had a plan. It was a simple plan, but he saw no flaws in it. His plan was to complete his seven years of schooling by keeping to himself and staying in the backyard, that way no one would take any notice of him at all, and therefore, no one would be paying enough attention to notice his monthly excursions from the castle.

The Headmaster, Dumbledore, had assured him that everything would be perfectly safe, but Remus wouldn’t take any chances, not when others lives depended on him being careful.

***

Sirius Black was more excited than anyone could ever know. He was getting away, finally getting away from his wretched mother for ten blissful months. Sure, he would have to go home for the holidays, but those would be brief stays, no more living under the same roof as her year round.

Though the term didn’t start for another three weeks, he already had his trunk almost entirely packed, all that was left was his books and wand.

His father had promised to take him to Diagon Alley as soon as the supply lists came in, and to Sirius, they couldn’t come quickly enough.

He wished he could take his little brother with him, but Regulus wouldn’t be allowed to join him for another year. It pained Sirius to have to leave him behind, alone with their mother, but he knew he had to go. And Regulus would be okay without him for one year... right?

***

James Potter did not want to go to Hogwarts. He loved his parents and he didn’t want to be away from them for so long. ‘We’ll write.’ They said. ‘It’s not that long.’ They said. But it didn’t matter.He would still be on his own, with complete strangers and a reputation to uphold. His mum had been the best Quidditch player during her time at Hogwarts and his dad had been the smartest in his year.

And, they had both been Gryffindors.

Everyone in his entire family had been Gryffindors.

What if he wasn’t?

***

Peter Pettigrew often dreamt that when he started up at Hogwarts, his true brilliance and skill on the Quidditch pitch would be recognized. In said dreams, he always had a girlfriend by the end of his first year.

One night, he’d told his father about those wonderful dreams, and his father had laughed in his face.

Oh well, Peter thought, I’ll just have to prove him wrong. He would be top of his class, best at Quidditch, the most popular wizard in the school, and he would have the prettiest girlfriend.

Peter nodded to himself, eyes closed, and inwardly satisfied. And of course, he would be in the very best house; Gryffindor.

***

Severus Snape could only hope that he would end up in the best house. His mum had been in Slytherin, and it often went by family... but not always.

His dad didn’t care for any of it much, didn’t know what it meant. And to his his mum, house didn’t matter. But it mattered to him. It mattered to him more than he cared to admit. But even greater than that, he wanted- no, needed Lily to be in the same house as him. He wasn’t sure if it was possible for a muggleborn to be in Slytherin, but he hoped with everything he was, that it could happen.

***

Lily Evans was afraid to go to school, despite what Severus said, she could tell from the way he spoke that muggleborns weren’t as good at magic as the rest. And what if she broke some rule and got kicked out? Or worse, sent to Azkaban.

Petunia already hated her for being a freak, she couldn’t bear to be cast out from the magically gifted too.

But, the other half of her, the part that she desperately tried to suppress, was beyond excited. She was going to get to learn magic. Charms, spells, jinxes, hexes, runes, history, the whole lot of it. And Lily couldn’t wait.

***

Regulus Black did not want to be left alone. He and his brother were incredibly close, and he didn’t want to be separated, and more than that, he didn’t want to be trapped with their mum.

He had resigned himself to a long and painful year, filled with much chastising from his mum and the occasional holler from his father.

Regulus intended to spend as much time as he could in his room, writing to Sirius and drawing with the charcoals he had stolen from the muggles in town.

***

Petunia Evans couldn’t believe that her sister was really going to go. She had always thought her sister was better than this, better than someone who would go off to some mysterious school with some greasy, sallow skinned boy.

But there she was, packing her trunk, with the intention of leaving Petunia behind.

And though Petunia would never admit it, she was jealous.

After all, who wouldn’t want to learn how to use magic?

Petunia sighed and rested her head on her hand, refusing to help her sister pack her things.


	2. Sorting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to skip writing about the train ride, since you all have already read in Deathly Hallows, so here’s the sorting. Content will be pretty light in these first couple of books, once the war really kicks up and the Marauders get older the plot will get more interesting, hence so few chapters in these first few. Anyway, enjoy!
> 
> P.S. JKR has said that 1000 students attend Hogwarts at a time which equates to approximately 143 students in each year. Obviously that doesn’t make sense with Harry’s year as there are 40 of them, so I have this little headcanon: Harry’s year is exponentially smaller than most because the war was raging at the time in which those students would have been born and many witches and wizards were likely apprehensive to start families resulting in far fewer children in Harry’s year as well as several of the years ahead of him and Ginny’s year.

The sorting ceremony was going to take ages per usual, with over one hundred students it would last hours. At least Sirius knew it would be over for him early on, but for the boy, James Potter, he had met on the train, it would be a long while before he knew whether or not he had made it into Gryffindor.

The elderly witch who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts read out the first name, “Abbott, Violet.” The girl moved forward from the line with a stiff posture that betrayed every ounce of her nervousness. It was infectious, spreading throughout the group and drawing silence. She sat down on the stool and the decrepit hat was placed upon her head.

It studied her for several, painstakingly long minutes before it finally cried out, “Ravenclaw!” She stood, relieved it would seem, and scurried over to the table with her new housemates.

A few more names were called and then it was Sirius’ turn. He sauntered up to the stool and plopped himself down on it, in a manner in which he hoped radiated ease and carefreeness. He was startled to find a voice speaking to him- into his mind- he supposed, as he had not heard the hat talk to those whom had already been sorted.

_Where to put you? You certainly have some Slytherin characteristics, ambitious, resourceful, but bright like a Ravenclaw and you certainly value loyalty, though not to your family... very Hufflepuff, and you’re brave and ah, yes, determined, so very determined to stand apart. Hmmm, I think it’s got to be..._ “Gryffindor!”

Sirius’ heart leapt straight into his throat and felt a certain fondness for the ancient hat. Tenderly he removed it from his head and replaced it on the stool before he strode over to the table decked in gold and red.

Lily didn’t want to disappoint Severus, so she wanted Slytherin. She sat herself on the stool and held her breath.

_Oh well now, he’ll regret that. You’re easy now though,_ “Gryffindor!”

Lily was horribly confused, so confused in fact that she sat on the stool for another thirty seconds. “But why?” She whispered. To her surprise, the hat responded. _You are ambitious, cunning, and resourceful, but Slytherin isn’t for you, Salazar himself made it that way, he’ll regret it dearly, you would have been a great addition. Without Slytherin, you’re easily Gryffindor._

With trembling fingers Lily removed the hat from her head and dropped it back onto the stool before joining her new house. She couldn’t bear to look at Severus as she passed. An idealistic thought sprung to mind, perhaps Severus would be in Gryffindor too.

Remus Lupin didn’t know a thing about any of the houses. On the train ride to the castle he had gathered that each house valued different things and you were sorted based on your values. And Professor McGonagall had told them all that there were four houses; Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor.

But he didn’t feel as though this vague information qualified him to preference one house over the others. He only hoped he would be placed in which ever one would grant him the quietest life here. His name was called and he sat on the stool.

_Don’t be so nervous child, you’ll be fine. Most definitely not a Slytherin, you really don’t expect much to come from your life, do you? Pity, you have so much potential. The other three though... that’s hard. Ah... there! I’ve got it, yes, yes, I think so._

“Gryffindor!” Remus was unsure how to feel as he took his place next to another first year with long dark hair and a broad grin.

Peter was on the stool, in front of everyone for ages. Surely it had been at least five minutes now, far longer than any of the others who had taken this very seat. He had been waiting for so long that when the hat finally declared his house to the entirety of the hall, he almost missed it. And even when he did hear it, he thought he must have heard wrong, surely he wasn’t really a Gryffindor. He must have landed in Hufflepuff and simply heard wrong. But no, the hat had said Gryffindor, there was no doubt about it.

In a stunned daze, Peter hurried over to the Gryffindor table, as though he feared that if he didn’t make it quickly enough, the hat would revoke its choice and declare that he was unfit for any house and should be sent home.

James’ friend had made it into Gryffindor and James couldn’t help the swell of pride, despite having only known him for a few short hours. Sirius had been among the first to be sorted, and now, after at least an hour, it was finally James’ turn. Throughout the whole thing he had watched Sirius goring himself on delectable food and engaging in conversation with his surrounding house mates. He had left an empty space beside him and James wondered if it was foolish to hope that the space had been reserved for him.

The hat had been on his head for barely a second and it was calling “Gryffindor.” James hadn’t even sat down all the way and already he was up and making his way over to his new friend.

Sure enough, the spot was for him. “You’ve got to try this.” Sirius said, his mouth full of something. There was more of it on his plate which he pushed in James’ direction. James picked up a piece of it and put it in his mouth, chewing lazily. It was fantastic.

“Not bad,” He said, his mouth also full of whatever it was.

He heard a scoff to his right and saw the red headed girl- Lily Evans- rolling her eyes at him and turning away. Girls.

Today couldn’t have been going any worse for Severus. Not only was Lily not in Slytherin, but she had somehow managed to wind herself in Gryffindor. Severus wasn’t sure how he had miscalculated so drastically. He had thought he knew his friend, but apparently, he didn’t know her at all.

He stalked over to the hat. He hadn’t sunk so low as to wish to be in Gryffindor, so there was no hope for them.

“Slytherin!” The word didn’t carry with it the same sense of joy that it had in all of his favorite dreams, for in those dreams Lily had been by his side when he’d taken a seat at Slytherin’s table. Instead, when he took his place, it was a tall blonde Slytherin prefect who welcomed him with a clap on the back. And sure, he had gotten what he had dreamed of for years, but without her was it really something worth wanting- worth having?


	3. Friendship Can Be Tricky

James was excelling in his classes. Most of it came easily to him, and anything that didn’t, came easily enough to Sirius. Ever since they’d met, the pair of them had been inseparable. Sirius was more fun than anyone James had ever met. He always said the right thing, told the best jokes, had the brightest ideas for ways they could get up to mischief. They’d only been in school for three months and already they’d racked up more detentions than most of the other students had in their entire time at school. In the beginning, even the detentions had been fun, as they’d spent them together, but the teachers were learning and had recently begun to separate them. That was how James had ended up dusting old trophies with another Gryffindor boy in his year who, much to James’ boredom, was not Sirius.

James kept sneaking glances at him, trying to remember what his name was. There were seventeen Gryffindor first years who were boys and they’d been split up into four different dormitories. And this boy was not in James’ dormitory, not that James paid all that much attention to the other boys who were in his dormitory. Luck had been on his side when they’d been assigned to them, because Sirius was assigned the bed right beside him. The other two boys in their dorm- Les Simon and Halbert Ramsey- were dull at best, nerdy and uptight at worse. They seemed to really like each other though, so they tended to leave James and Sirius alone.

“So, uh,” James began, trying for some small talk, “What’d you do to land yourself in detention?”

The boy seemed to be surprised that James was even deigning to talk to him. After a moment of opening and closing his mouth like a gaping fish, he stammered out, “I didn’t hand in the essay for Transfiguration.”

James squinted at him, “Why not?”

“I don’t really know the seventeen ways to transfigure inanimate objects into other inanimate objects.” The boy stuttered.

“Oh,” James said, stumped. Hadn’t Professor McGonagall spent the whole previous class going over them? “Well, that’s easy.” James said and then recited them all for the boy. Once he finished he looked at the boy, but he seemed just as perplexed as before. James sighed and said, “Once we get finished with this, I’ll write down the seventeen ways for you and then you can just make it into an essay.”

“Really? Thanks!” The boy said enthusiastically. James grinned back.

***

Once Sirius was dismissed from detention- which consisted of him mopping the Great Hall, by himself, without magic- he raced back to the Gryffindor common rooms. The common rooms were quaint and spanned across four floors. The first floor was designated to the first years, so it was likely that James would be there waiting for him. But when Sirius arrived, James was not there. Sirius checked their dorm room, but it was empty. Sirius sighed and went back to the first year’s common room where he settled into a large scarlet armchair and began to work on his potions homework.

He had finished it and started on the charms assignment before James got back. When he did, he was walking with a another first year, Parker or Pablo or something of the sort. They were deep in conversation, so immersed in it that James walked right by Sirius without noticing him. Sirius tried to not be offended. He was too proud to go chasing after James, so he stayed where he was and just continued working. But after a while he started to become self conscious, everyone else was sitting with at least one other person, working together on homework, talking or playing wizard’s chess. Except... there, curled up in a plush chair beside the fire with a book was a pale and shabby boy with light brown hair. Sirius thought his name might have been Remus something.

On a whim, Sirius stood and strode over to him, taking a seat on the carpet before the fire. He reached his hands forward, under the pretense of trying to warm them. He peered over at Remus, squinting to try and read the title of the book Remus was reading. It was something that Sirius certainly didn’t recognize.

“What are you reading?” He asked. Remus jumped, surprised to be being addressed.

“You probably wouldn’t know it,” Remus said, closing the book but keeping his page marked with a finger, “It’s muggle reading, my mum’s favorite, Shakespeare- Hamlet.”

“Is it any good?” Sirius asked, for some reason, he didn’t want his conversation with Remus to end.

“Not really,” Remus answered with a shrug, its old English, which for some reason makes it that much more dull.”

“Then why read it?” Sirius inquired. He wasn’t one to waste his free time doing things he didn’t want to of his own free will.

Remus shrugged again, “It reminds me of home.” A part of Sirius ached at that. What would it be like, he wondered, to miss home, to want reminders of it? Sure, there was a part of Sirius that missed his brother, but he held no love for his parents. He felt bad for leaving Regulus alone in Grimmauld Place with them. Grimmauld Place. He laughed inwardly at the irony of it. When they were little, Sirius and Regulus had discovered that if you separated the syllables of their home, then it sounded like ‘grim old place’ which described it perfectly.

“Do you know how to play wizard’s chess?” Sirius asked hopefully. He needed something to distract himself, no part of him wanted to think about his parents or Grimmauld Place.

***

Part of Remus was angry with himself for allowing this boy to keep a conversation with him. The anger only grew when he accepted the boy’s request to play wizard’s chess. Remus had vowed to keep to himself and remain inconspicuous, and this boy, Sirius Black, was the opposite of that. But on the other hand, Remus was curious- he’d never played wizard’s chess before- and he longed for a friend.

After a brief crash course on how the game worked, they began to play. Within five turns Sirius had Remus’ king in check. He barely managed to get himself out of it. Remus resigned himself to the fact that he was likely going to lose, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Half way through the game, two other boys came over to join them. Remus recognized one as Sirius’ partner in crime; James Potter, but he wasn’t sure who the other was.

“James!” Sirius greeted, “This is Remus.” He gestured to Remus, who waved sheepishly.

James gave him a jerk of the head as welcome and then introduced them to his new friend, “This is Peter. Peter, Sirius. Sirius, Peter.” The two of them sat down on the carpet beside them and James tried to summon another board off of the table. The spell was above first years, but he managed it alright, though several of the pieces groaned in annoyance and toppled over. They glared at him and jabbed him with their swords when he tried to put them right. Remus couldn’t help but laugh at the scene.

He sobered up soon enough when he realized what their camaraderie meant. He was making friends, something he had sworn he wouldn’t do. For he could not bare to become close to them, only to lose them when they discovered his secret. He could imagine the looks of disgust on each of their faces. A hopeful little voice whispered in the back of his head, you could hide it from them forever, they needn’t know. What they don’t know can’t hurt them, Remus decided as Sirius put his king into checkmate. Remus silently cursed himself for growing distracted so easily.

***

Peter turned out to be incredibly gifted when it came to playing wizard’s chess. James, despite his brilliance in the classroom, had not been able to best him thus far. Peter chalked it up to the fact that the pieces were still holding a grudge against James for making them soar across the room, but he’d beaten Sirius too. Which was apparently an incredible feat, the way Sirius told it. Peter was overjoyed to have friends, especially those as smart and talented as Sirius and James were. Remus had a sort of quiet brilliance to him that Peter couldn’t wrap his head around. He was modest, humble, in a way Peter would never me, not if he was smart and skilled like the other three.

Peter was glad to have them as his friends, though he wasn’t sure why James had sought out his friendship, he would do everything in his power to hold onto it. He had seem the sorts of pranks Sirius and James pulled on some of their classmates and he would rather not have them targeted on himself. Even more tempting, he knew they had a knack for magic above that of any of the other students, so the Slytherins would leave them alone. After all, they weren’t ones to pick fights they knew they couldn’t win. Peter liked knowing James and Sirius would protect him.

***

Lily had had no trouble making friends with the other Gryffindor girls in her dorm room, especially Dorcas Meadowes and Marlene McKinnon. They had all of their classes together too and they partnered together for practically everything. The three of them agreed on everything- except for one thing, Severus. The two of them didn’t like him very much. They didn’t have much reason behind him, only that they came from long lines of Gryffindors and he was a Slytherin. They felt that Slytherins couldn’t be trusted... ever.

With time, Lily hoped she could change their minds, but in the meantime, she continued to be friends with all of them, just separately. She would spend hours in the library, doing homework with Severus, then go back to the first year common room to hang out with Dorcas and Marlene. She felt stretched, like she was living two different lives, but she didn’t want to lose any of her friends. She could feel that Severus was doing the same thing with his own new Slytherin friends, but neither of them mentioned it as they tried desperately to salvage their friendship.

***

Severus was growing more and more bitter about the way things had turned out as the months passed and warm air turned to crisp wind. He missed having Lily all to himself. And sure he had made new friends too, but he didn’t go rushing from the library to meet them. Nor did he talk to Lily about them or tell her how she would love them if she just gave them the chance. No, he knew his friends would not get along with her, or vise versa. They were from two different worlds. Pureblood Slytherins vs mudblood Gryffindors. Muggleborn. He cursed himself. Muggleborn, muggleborn, never mudblood, that one word would bring their friendship to an end faster than Severus could snap his fingers.


End file.
